Lesson 1: Figurative Language

Fast rode the knight

Fast rode the knight
With spurs, hot and reeking,
Ever waving an eager sword,
"To save my lady!"
Fast rode the knight,
And leaped from saddle to war.
Men of steel flickered and gleamed
Like riot of silver lights,
And the gold of the knight's good banner
Still waved on a castle wall.
. . . . .
A horse,
Blowing, staggering, bloody thing,
Forgotten at foot of castle wall.
A horse
Dead at foot of castle wall.


1)How are the figurative language used in the poem? Give the specific word(s), explain what type of figurative language it is and why the poet chose to use this figurative language?

The figurative language used in this poem is simile. The sentence is 'Men of steel flickered and gleamed Like riot of silver lights' .The poet chose to use this simile because he wanted to describe how great the number of the knights are. Silver like cannot riot but the poet wanted to make the sight of gleaming amour obvious to the reader.

2)Tell us why you like this poem in no less than 100 words.

One reason why I like this poem is because it describes with detail the scene of war to the reader. With the banner waving at the castle wall, and the spurs hot and reeking. The sentence:""And leaped from saddle to war." showed the hurry of the knights to get to war, to their horse and immediately to war.Another reason why I like this poem is because the massive troops is described to the reader with the silver glimmering. It makes the reader know how great the army of knights would have been like. Adding this two factors together, it creates the scene of massive troops of knights eager to ride their horses to war.At the end of the poem, it shows pitifully the state of the horse the knight was riding. This poem shows two sides of war: one elegant and one death